1. #1
    Watch Panda FortMax's Avatar
    Mar 2011
    229

    Kakuranger 1-7 with Hikari-Senshi




    Translation/pretiming: TehKou
    Editing: Lynxara
    QC : sgtkira (>implying Lynx's scripts need QC)
    Encoding/timing/final QC/muxing: Bunnyhat (>implying Lynx's scripts need a second QC)

    Sgtkira: This might look a bit strange to you, a lot of you are probably very, very confused, but hear me out here. The original tranlstor for Kaku, Fantasyleader is still working with H-S. But, as it tends to, life has gotten in the way. He's actually been a fan of this show ever since he was a kid, but neither of us wanted the show to be delayed any longer. I always post on how I believe groups should work together, and how, if a group has a similar style and mindset, we really should try out hardest to work together. Now, who messages me out of the blue? Lynxara. She tells me that Kou wanted to do another show done by Noburo Sugimura, who wrote Zyuranger. He wrote Dairanger as well, but some group ended up taking care of that. Hikari something.

    Fantasy and I are both fans of Kou's work, so we talked it over, and we knew that she would be able to do a good job with it, and it frees up fantasy to do other things. We have released Kou's work before. Some great shows like Da Garn, Zubat, and Gaia but these were scripts that were posted on her site. This time, she'll be doing a script every week. Remember Zyu's pace? Well, we'll be trying our hardest to keep that pace up with Kaku. Sadly, though, MegaAnon won't be working beside us with this project, but he's done some amazing work with Lynxara and Kou on Goseiger.

    Why GUIS? Well, they were looking to throw their staff and resouces behind whatever Kou wanted to do next. So they're helping us with distributing episodes and someother behind-the-scenes things. So, Kou has gone over the first 4 episodes again (to make sure everything is consistent), but 5-7 are brand new releases! This worked out really well. We were going to go over 1-4 again because of the new RAWs, so changing translators and gaining more staff was beneficial to everyone.

    Anywho, I have ranted long enough, time to post Lynxara's thoughts of these episodes. I truly insist that you read the release posts that we'll be posting. They will definitely answer any of your questions So please, please read them after you have watched each episode. Thank you for watching, and I hope you like the show, guys!

    Lynxara: The production team of 1994's Ninja Sentai Kakuranger is predominantly the same group of writers, directors, producers, and other folks responsible for the prior entry in the Super Sentai series, 1993's Gosei Sentai Dairanger. As the story goes, when that team wrapped up the Dairanger, somebody said, "Wait. Why did we make a Sentai about China, when we've never made one about Japan?"

    This creation myth is probably over-simplified, but Kakuranger is still undoubtedly the first of what are sometimes called the "patriotic" Sentai, shows that go out of their way emphasize Japanese culture in their design, story, and gimmicks. Other shows generally considered "patriotic" are Hurricaneger and Shinkenger, if you're curious, but Kakuranger is actually more grounded in Japanese culture than either.

    This makes Kakuranger a genuinely difficult prospect, when it comes to creating an English translation. While all Sentai is Japanese, very little of it is actually about Japan. Most things in the average Sentai show can be directly translated quite easily Kakuranger, though, is a show that ends up being about a lot of concepts that just don't exist outside of Japan. As such, there aren't always English terms that really fit whatever an episode of Kakuranger is talking about. Sometimes, even when terms are available, you still need some content from what was going on in Japanese society in the 1990s.

    So this translation is going to be a bit more... let's say, Japanese than you may be used to from Hikari Senshi. We will try to translate things that can be easily and simply translated, but in other cases, we will retain Japanese terms. To help make the subtitles more readable for English speakers who are unfamiliar with Japanese, we're going to italicize all of the Japanese terms used in the text. This is a literary device traditionally used when writing about Japan in English, particularly in scholarly work. The idea is that by italicizing the unfamiliar words, you make them stand out, and make them easier to read quickly and understand in context.

    All Japanese terms used in the subs will be explained in episode notes that go along with each release, in case you're still confused about something after you finish an episode. We will try to explain every italicized term to the best of our ability. We'll also be footnoting cultural references, things that aren't matters of language so much as matters of what Japan was like when Kakuranger was originally produced. While Kakuranger is a patriotic show, it's not a jingoistic one. A lot of episodes are topical, and focus on criticizing various social changes that were occurring at the time. We'll try to point out when an episode is engaging in social commentary in a way that might not be entirely obvious, and kind of confusing if you're not sure what the show is going on about.

    We will endeavor to make sure that translations of episodes can be understood and enjoyed without reading any of the release notes, of course. The notes are simply there for viewers who may want to know more about a topic, or who felt like there was something going on in an episode that was a bit inexplicable. Kakuranger is an extremely well-written series and a landmark entry in the Super Sentai franchise, but it's also a show that can be difficult for Western fans to watch as easily as they might watch something like, well, Dairanger. We want to provide every possible resource for fans who want to really get into it while we do this release.

    As for the names of gadgets and robots... that is, the toy-related names. There's much debate in the Sentai fan community about whether or not the names of toy items, particularly robots and gadgets, should be translated in subtitles. Generally, toy collectors prefer that toy items have their names transliterated, so they don't have to memorize two sets of names for everything. More story-oriented fans want translations of the toy items names to appear in the subtitles, so they can understand how the names were supposed to "feel" to its original audience. Both camps hold very valid viewpoints, and it's literally impossible to please them both. Ultimately, what we do as release staff will just be a matter of what feels right for the show.

    If you watched the Zyuranger release we did with MegaAnon, you saw that most of the toy-related names written in Japanese were left that way. This is because there's really only a handful of Japanese terms that occur in the show, and their meanings were not essential to deciphering anything about the story. Kakuranger, however, throws gobs and gobs of Japanese at the audience, both in the toy names and in basic dialogue. As discussed above, a lot of the Japanese terminology the show uses can't easily be replaced in English. As a result, we've decided to be a bit more liberal about translating toy names for this release, when simple and direct translations are possible. Leaving everything untranslated seemed like it could help push the subs into being overwhelming.

    That said, you may be surprised to see how many toy names are left untranslated. In part, this is because there are some terms the show uses purely because they sound particularly old-fashioned and super-Japanese, and replacing them with English terms was awkward at best. We also have to account for the presence in the show of Jiraiya, a particularly demented and memorable character who... well, just watch the show. You'll see what sort of translation problems he single-handedly creates.

    Ultimately, we want the item names to be kept short and easy to remember, so it's not too annoying for either toy collectors or more story-oriented fans. For purists who may dislike having any translated names for toy items in the subs, we will provide alternates that you can use to replace the translated names in the scripts. You can't make everyone happy all of the time, so hopefully this is a compromise that isn't too awkward.

    BunnyHat: Brace yourself for Cat Drugs. Also, episode 7 sure is an Arakawa episode.



    Hardsub links are in the thread link above!
    Last edited by FortMax; 01-23-2016 at 06:17 PM.

  2. #2
    Junior Member
    Apr 2012
    6
    YES! Im so excited! I got this tidbit of information when I donated to the website but I thought you guys would have started this project AFTER maskman or something haha! Ohh man, you guys rock! Thank you so much!

  3. #3
    Junior Member
    Jul 2012
    13
    Good news ! I was very curious about this one, you guys are aweome

  4. #4
    Junior Member
    Jun 2012
    Chicago IL
    8
    Kakuranger! The best SS ever! (Forgive me Zyuranger and Dairanger) PLEASE GUIS and HS sub all the episodes PLEASE! This is the holy grail of SS(for me anyway). THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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